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Saturday, December 30, 2017

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz) on Dec 27, 2017 at 5:40pm PST

This week was filled with summer things. That happens when the weather cooperates, and it’s especially likely in the days between Christmas and New Year. This week showed that.

The photo above is of a fruit & vege shop at the top of the Bombay Hills (also called “The Bombays”). The hills, which are particularly high, serve as the southern boundary—physical and symbolic—of the Auckland region. People on the rest of New Zealand sometimes claim, not always without justification, that “Aucklanders don’t care about anything south of the Bombays”.

That particular truism is false because so many Aucklanders, in fact, came to the region from “south of the Bombays”. But it’s true insofar as Aucklanders care about their city (sometimes begrudgingly) and sometimes resent it when we don’t seem to get our fair share from central government. In other words, Aucklanders are just like people who live in other regions.

That particular fruit shop isn’t all that great, to be honest, and the “real fruit ice cream” wasn’t as good, was smaller, and was more expensive than one we’d had from a fruit shop closer to our house earlier in the week. But, it was nice enough, I suppose.

That particular day we were taking Nigel’s Mum back home after her Christmas visit with us. We then had an early dinner with family in Hamilton, and left for home, arriving just as the light was fading at around 9pm or so.

The second photo, below, was just a sunny day’s activity. I try to hang up the washing in the summer when it dries quickly and completely. I can—and do—hang the washing out year round, but in winter (or near to it on either side) it doesn’t dry completely. So summer and it’s drying is always a good thing—and saves us money on electricity, of course.

And these are just ordinary, everyday sorts of things in my summer in Auckland. Sometimes I like ordinary summer things best.